Health system CIOs on the front lines are now reflecting on the lessons learned and releasing tools for other organizations to optimize responses in their communities.
There are also new cybersecurity threats as teams go virtual and big tech companies make an effort to promote interoperability, even as HHS moves back the enforcement of its interoperability final rules. Finally, health systems continue to furlough employees due to the financial strains of postponing elective procedures, although in some states governors will allow elective surgery to begin again in May.
Ten things for CIOs to know:
1. HHS has definitively delayed enforcing its interoperability rules, which were finalized March 9. The original final rule would be effective six months after it was published in the Federal Register, scheduled for May 1; that is now extended to one year. CMS will not enforce the new requirements for Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program until July 21, 2021. The ONC also pushed back the timeline of its information blocking certification, application programing interfaces and interoperability requirement enforcement.
2. Google Cloud made its interoperability application, Cloud Healthcare API, available to all health systems. Google had been using the API in its partnership with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic for interoperability and clinical data storage. The API uses machine learning and analytics to help organizations, including health plans, understand data inputs. Users can also interact with the data through web-friendly endpoints so health plans can transition to a cloud-based FHIR server with the needed capabilities for implementing and scaling interoperability initiatives.
3. President Donald Trump named several executives to the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups task force to develop a strategy for reopening parts of the economy after the pandemic. The 15 tech executives on the task force include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google (Alphabet) CEO Sundar Pichai, Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The CEOs of Facebook, Salesforce and IBM are also on the task force.
4. Health system CIOs in the states hit hardest by the pandemic report scaling virtual and telehealth operations, coordinating patient communications and supporting clinical operations as the top priorities during the pandemic. The CIOs recommend expanding network capacity, acquiring more iPads and laptops for patient communication, and updating EHR alerts to identify and track COVID-19 patients before the surge of virus patients. It's also helpful to have educational materials ready for physicians to make the transition to telehealth seamless and finding the right dashboards to track supplies including PPE and ventilators to prevent a shortage.
"The game board can change so often right now as we pivot to support the next priority," University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center CIO Tom Barnett told Becker's. "Not only for us, but anyone in healthcare IT, we always want to make sure that we are supporting new workflow arrangements, including work from home, videoconferencing, telephones, etc., and are able to turn configuration changes around quickly in our EMR — be it the need for new bed types, new visit types, or new locations altogether that are needed for front-line care providers."
5. Beaumont Health in Southfield, Mich., notified 112,000 patients last week of a phishing attack that may have exposed their protected health information. The attack occurred between May 23, 2019, and June 3, 2019. The health system was not able to determine whether a third party acquired any information as a result of the attack.
6. As organizations feel the effects of COVID-19, health IT leaders are refocusing their budgets to invest in cloud services, laptops and other tools that will support employees working from home. The cloud services are helpful to give health systems agility during this time, since they can purchase space on an as-needed basis. Hospitals can also move away from in-house data centers and servers, which can be costly, with a cloud investment. Hospitals are also investing in artificial intelligence and software tools that will help analyze data and automate processes during this time. The International Data Corp estimates global IT spend could drop 1 percent, or $2.3 trillion, this year amid the pandemic.
7. NBC News reported thousands of email addresses and passwords of Zoom accounts are being sold on the dark web for pennies. An independent security firm found 530,000 accounts for sale after the company came under fire for security vulnerabilities. On April 22, The Wall Street Journal also reported that Apple iPhones may be vulnerable to email hacks due to a flaw in the smartphone email software.
8. Health systems continue to report furloughs, with Tower Health in Philadelphia furloughing at least 1,000 employees due to revenue declines. Dallas-based Tenet also announced furlougs in recent weeks, and Banner Health in Phoenix cut executive pay and is planning to furlough up to 7 percent of its employees. Beaumont Health will permanently lay off 450 staff members and furlough 2,475; its CEO John Fox also took a 70 percent pay cut to his base salary while the rest of the executive leadership team took a 45 percent pay cut.
9. The Trump administration unveiled a plan for reintroducing elective surgeries, and many states and health systems are already taking steps to do so. For example, Pittsburgh-based UPMC said it plans to begin performing elective surgeries despite Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's ban on elective procedures, which was instituted in March. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said he would allow surgeons to begin performing elective procedures again on May 4, and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt issued an order to resume outpatient procedures for non-life-threatening illnesses on May 1.
10. The U.S. must perform 5 million COVID-19 tests a day by June to lift social distancing restrictions, according to a Harvard University report. The average tests per day from April 12-19 was 151,000, well below the 5 million needed. To fully reopen the economy, the country would need capacity to process 20 million tests per day by late July.